THE Three Brothers and Their Sister Were All Born in the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century, Children of James Lee of Inverness, Scotland
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THREE BROTHERS AND A SISTER By LILY LEE NIXON* THE three brothers and their sister were all born in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, children of James Lee of Inverness, Scotland. James' father, William Lee, had been a sup- porter of Prince Charles, the Young Pretender, and was killed in the battle of Culloden, which was fought just five miles from Inverness. James, himself, was educated and was known to have preached, .though whether he was an ordained minister or not is not known. Although a seaport, Inverness is really the capital of the High- lands. The beautiful Ness River winds through it to the Moray Firth, but it has come from the Highlands. Strengthened by por- ridge and Scotch broth, made from the Scot's chief foods-oats, barley, and mutton-the Lee children must have keenly enjoyed their childhood and youth: watching the sailing vessels leaving for Leith, for London, or perhaps for far-off America; tramping over the Highlands with Munro and Davidson relatives; count- ing the sheep on busy market days as the woolen merchants weighed the fleeces, or running breathlessly past the spot where *Miss Lily Lee Nixon is the author of James Burd: Frontier Defender, 1726-I793, a Contributing Editor, Pennsylvania History, and a teacher of history in Peabody High School, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 145 146 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY Macbeth murdered Duncan. But the generation of Scots living after the terrible defeat at Culloden had a hard time in their eco- nomic, political, and religious life. The Covenanters, particularly, were not happy. So it is not surprising that more young folks looked to America, the land of the free. We shall speak of the youngest son first, for he was the one, strange to say, who chose to stay in the old world with his par- ents although in a different country, England. Seldom, indeed, in those distant days did a whole family emigrate. This youngest son, Alexander, became a physician in London. Family tradi- tion says he was known for research and the translation of sev- eral medical works. A descendant has in her possession a letter written by him from Three Crown Square, London, in 1832- the year of Britain's Great Reform Bill-to his brother in Amer- ica. In part it says: "It will be nothing new to tell you that Reform in the Body politic & Cholera in the Body physical have con- vulsed our unhappy country to the very centre-in my district as one of the Medical Officers of our Cholera Hospital tis not unusual to see 20 die in 24 hours-and some of these after 12 or 14 hours illness." This physician may have felt more at home in disturbed London than in quiet Inverness, for, despite sup- port of the Stuarts, tradition and some data indicate an English origin for this Lee family. Alexander had a son, Dr. Alexander Cooper Lee, who wrote and lectured on the eye, but after the death of the three brothers and the sister, the family tie seems not to have held. It is presumed that the sister, Elizabeth, came to America with the oldest brother, William. Did the bagpipes of their Mac- Pherson clan play the MacCrimmon lament, by which most "Highlanders marched to the shore when they were about to em- bark as emigrants to some distant clime"? They chose the United States and landed in Philadelphia, its capital and metropolis in 1796, when the United States and William were each twenty years of age. Elizabeth married William Wright. The couple had several children. We have little knowledge of Elizabeth but have many letters from her son, William Wright, Jr. He was well educated for the times and a successful business man, among other things an early-1849-investor in Pennsylvania Railroad stock and in coal lands. THREE BROTHERS AND A SISTER 147 This son of Elizabeth had the peculiar misfortune of having his home at 173 South Ninth Street, Philadelphia, entered twice by burglars-in 1850 and in 1854. His own letters and the news- paper accounts show that he was either a very brave or a very foolhardy man. In each horrible and bizarre case, he fought to defend his home and family and as a result was crippled for life. After the second attempt, the Philadelphia Public Ledger & Daily Transcript had, besides a long news article, an editorial about the Wright burglary and the need for more adequate police protection. Little more is known of sister Elizabeth and family. She must have many descendants in America-Wright, Rodan, Thomas and others. William Lee, who came to America with Elizabeth, was a shep- herd boy in the Highlands but was educated in the Lowlands and possibly in London, where he spent four years before sailing for America. He probably lived with his Uncle William Lee, a mer- chant, "in the straw bonnet line." Young William is mentioned in the Philadelphia directory for 1798 as a school master, later a school teacher, then an ice man, then an ice dealer. His letters are written in a splendid hand and in good concise English. What influence upon his students did he have? Were they so thor- oughly grounded in Mathematics, Latin, and English that they could take a valuable part in the affairs of the city, state, or nation? One cannot teach in one city for almost a quarter of a century as he did without leaving some impression for good or ill. If Inverness was then noted for the correct English accent as it is now, William must certainly have struggled with the vari- ous dialects of Philadelphia. Like so many before and since, William Lee used his teaching 148 PENNSYLVANIA HISTORY experience as a stepping stone to business success. Financially he surpassed both his brothers. He was one of the pioneers in the cutting and storing of natural ice in large quantities in Phila- delphia, just as a grand-nephew seventy-five years later was one of the pioneers in the manufacturing of ice in Pittsburgh. Letters from him and from relatives tell about his ice wagons starting off in the morning, of the beautiful box hedges around his three- story brick "messuage" at Schuylkill Fifth and Barker Streets (now South Eighteenth and Ludlow Streets), of his fond hope of a big sheep-raising project in Buck Valley, Bedford County (now in Fulton County), of some of the settlers to whom he sold land, and, despite his three sons, of his two sons-in-law gradually taking over the business. One can easily understand why William Lee would prosper if he pursued all his business with the same thoroughness that is indicated in a letter dated 1840 to his nephew, James Lee (son of John), of Pittsburgh. In reference to the sheep-raising project he tells James to so conduct himself in his travels through Ohio and Pennsylvania "that you will not be deficient in any particular concerning them (sheep) on which I may catechise you viz. the general time of lambing, the time of weaning, the washing, shear- ing, pasturing, the kind of pasture, of wilds [sic] and enclosures, the number per acre that can be kept, the feeding and foddering in time of deep snow, the manner of their care and attendance and the expense, the returns of profit from the fleeces and car- casses, their comparative profit with cattle, horses and swine, etc. Make inquiries as to who is the largest sheep owner west of the mountains." There seems only one query missing: the wages paid to drovers of those days. Although he had been blind for years, when William died in 1849 he was quite wealthy. A printed copy of his will (Will Book 23, page 89, etc.) lists many houses and lots on Chestnut, Broad, Cedar, and around Schuylkill Fifth and Barker in Philadelphia, and also many acres in New Jersey and in what was listed in early maps as Sarahs Manor, Bedford County, in Southern Pennsyl- vania. At one time he owned 25,000 acres in the latter region. A map of his holdings was lithographed by Lehman and Duval. The canny Scot may have engrossed all the land in that area which Revolutionary soldiers could not hold or did not appreciate; but THREE BROTHERS AND A SISTER 14'9 he bought more than 20,000 acres from one person, John Conrad. H-is will caused a great stir and a long law suit. His wife, Eliza- beth Thompson, whom he had married in 1806, had predeceased him. The two married daughters and the sons-in-law received most of the property and all of the power. A son who had left home and had not been heard from was cut off with $500.00 (it de- veloped later that he had fought through the Mexican War). Wealth had brought dissension and discord into the William Lee family. His descendants-Lee, McKibbon, Lehman, Sloan, Charl- ton, Lafferty, Taylor, and others-probably still live in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and other western states. Now we come to the last of the brothers, John, born in Inver- ness in 1780. He was quite young when his mother died; there- fore he was reared in the Highlands by his grandparents. After a severe attack of scarlet fever he was left somewhat deaf, and little money was spent on his education. Later he was impressed into the British army. He served during most of the Napoleonic Wars and was stationed at Great Britain's most strategic strong- hold, Gibraltar. Finally, his father "bought him off" and he came to Edinburgh where his father, who had remarried, then lived.